6.1 Photography Akram Zaatari.pdf -

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152 153 154 photography He is an architect, filmmaker, producer, photographer, author, curator and co-founder of the Arab Image Foundation. But Lebanese-born Akram Zaatari is a curiously old soul with an enduring love for earth’s many, unknown secrets. T E X T BY M Y R N A AYA D I M A G E S C O U R T E S Y O F S F E I R - S E M L E R gallery here was a palpable sense of irony as I walked into Akram were forced to stay home,” he grins mischievously, going on Zaatari’s exhibition, Earth of Endless Secrets. The show, a to tell me how he would replay bomb sounds to his already- pictographic and video-graphic documentation of the many jumpy grandmother. wars in Lebanon, was held at the Beirut branch of Sfeir-Semler In this third part of the exhibition, Zaatari displays Gallery, located in the shabby district of Karantina – once a images of cacti that he cared for, along with an image of his battle zone and scene sister playing the piano of carnage in Lebanon’s – all are lightly stained Civil War. Even more Zaatari, it seems, knows the in a shade of sepia so ironic is the Lebanese Red Cross occupying the adage, ‘one man’s terrorist typical of 1980s photos that were void of the term other end of the building. is another man’s freedom ‘high-res’. There are also Construction workers fighter’ all too well. He knows it images of pages from throng the building’s his 1982 diary listing entrance and once at the enough to mark a terrorist or a movies he had watched fourth floor, a heavy steel freedom fighter as just a man, during his ‘home door wrenches open to confinement’. “It’s really reveal the large, almost of flesh, blood and emotions. strange. When I read antiseptic gallery space it today, it reads like a – block after block of white cement walls flashing against a diary that is meant to be public; almost like the writer is aware bright autumn sun. Zaatari prefers that I make a solo tour that someone is going to read this.” Incidentally, Zaatari had of the show first and when I have been gone too long, he aspired to the world of film, wanting to become a filmmaker or finds me staring at an image of a audio cassette tape. “It an actor, but studied architecture at the American University was boredom, it was real, real boredom,” he says of his time of Beirut instead – a profession, he says, “that was the closest spent at home in Sidon during the 1982 Israeli invasion. “I to my interests and character, and also, studying architecture developed a lot of recording attitudes and habits because we makes you a good synthesiser of information.” In 1992, Zaatari Opening spread: After they joined the Military Struggle. Fourteen young men posing with guns. completed his MA in Media Studies at New York’s New School Saida. Early 1970s. Objects of Study/Studio Shehrazade/Hashem El-Madani. Series of 16 silver prints, 30 x 30 cm each. University. There are images of bright orange photo albums Facing page: Souvenirs from the Front. 2007. Colour lightjet prints. 40 x 50 cm. with heavy black type and Kodak logos printed on them, 155 photography “Imagine how awkward it is to say, ‘hey, this guy told me he wrote a letter for you when he took over your house and hid it in your garden and can I dig up your garden and take pictures?’” archetypal of 1980s photo stores. “These images are not fighters. There are images of a letter, diary entries, stones, just about the war, they’re also about the development of the dried flowers and acorns. “Souvenirs, souvenirs,” smiles photo industry in Lebanon and the economy of photography,” Zaatari, noticing my astonished facial expression. Looking at he says as we stroll back to the gallery entrance to begin a the acorns, I draw a parallel with the fable The Sky is Falling 360-degree tour of the show that he curated. – the character Chicken Little believes the sky is falling when an acorn falls on her head, meaning imminent doom. Zaatari Knowing the Unknown laughs. “It fascinates me that a man of his profession would The concept of Earth of Endless Secrets began as a book collect such keepsakes. He is highly sensitive.” Zaatari, it idea on issues of territoriality based on Zaatari’s collection seems, knows the adage, ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s of materials. Text-heavy at almost 400 pages and with twice freedom fighter’ all too well. He knows it enough to mark a as many exhibited images, the then-chairman curator Stefan terrorist or a freedom fighter as just a man, of flesh, blood and Kalmar of Munich’s Kunstverein suggested an exhibition emotions. Political indeed his art is, but Zaatari’s intentions as the book began to take shape. Earth of Endless Secrets are not political in the least. They may take political themes, showed at the Kunstverein in March 2009, but Zaatari split the but his guiding principle is the notion of humanity. show in Beirut between the Beirut Art Centre and Sfeir-Semler Hashisho was the basis behind Zaatari’s documentary, Gallery. Selecting exhibition material might have been tricky In This House, which recounts the unearthing of a letter that to derive from such a substantial tome but Zaatari knew what Hashisho wrote to the house’s original owners in the hope that he wanted and divided the Sfeir-Semler show into four main they would one day find his apology. In the second that we chapters. The first 90 degrees are dedicated to remnants that consider this thoughtful act, Hashisho is absolved for his role Ali Hashisho, a former Lebanese resistance fighter, left in 1997 as a resistance fighter. Instead, for whatever cause or political while occupying a house for six years with fellow resistance dogma, we almost forgive him because of this concerned gesture. “Yes, yes indeed,” agrees Zaatari, “and this is almost Fold-out: Works from Hashem El-Madani Hashem El-Madani: Studio Practices. Black and white photographs, silver prints, taken between 1949 and the late 1970s by Hashem El-Madani, each emblematic of my work, which is a reasoned archaeology in between 22 x 15 cm and 39.5 x 26.5 cm. Edition of seven plus two artist’s proofs. Inside fold: Desert Panorama. 2002–6. Composite digital image. 90 x 450 cm. Edition of five plus one territories of war.” He chuckles when recalling his meeting with artist’s proof. Film: Desert Panorama. 2002. DVD. Black and white, nine minute-loop. the house’s owners. “Imagine how awkward it is to say, ‘hey, 156 photography “I called it Earth of Endless Secrets because it communicates my interest in archaeology, meaning that earth has so many secrets that need to be deported [and] by ‘earth’ I mean land.” this guy told me he wrote a letter for you when he took over your workers labouring in the building, drop something and the house and hid it in your garden and can I dig up your garden deafening thud reverberates – it was eerily familiar to a sound and take pictures?’” What is extraordinary is how Zaatari found of war. And Zaatari picked up on that. Hashisho to begin with – simply a case of the domino effect. “I called it Earth of Endless Secrets because it “You can’t leave these people, they become like orbits in your communicates my interest in archaeology, meaning that earth life. It’s not friendship or emotional attachment. It’s just care, has many secrets that need to be deported,” he says, adding, it’s really care. This is how you construct a universe around “by ‘earth’ I mean land.” And the desert is one such terrain of you that also gets supported with your work.” endless secrets. “It’s looking at a time when war was not here yet,” adds Zaatari, pointing to another part of the exhibition The Others dedicated to the desert. The Syrian-born historian Jibrail Nearby hangs an image of a letter in a capsule that Zaatari Suhayl Jabbur, who studied in Lebanon, Egypt and the USA, asked former prisoner of war [in Israeli prison] Nabih Awada became captivated by the Bedouins, and together with famed to write to [former] detainee Samir Al-Qintar on the occasion Lebanese photographer Manoug, spent a week in the Syrian of Al-Qintar’s release. “I asked Nabih if there were things he desert in the early 1950s, documenting the nomadic Bedouin wanted to say to Samir and he said, ‘yes, there would be a way of life. The images may seem ethnographic, but Zaatari is lot of things I would love to tell him and say in public but I charmed by their “playfulness” so much so that he admits to can’t, given the current Lebanese political situation.’” Awada, having, “played the same way Jabbur did but [I] reconstructed the main subject of the Beirut Art Centre exhibition, formed the all the elements.” The show ends with large images of letter in the same way that prisoners used to write secret letters landscapes that were crossed by hundreds of Lebanese to one another – by making them small enough to swallow. To resistance fighters when Israel invaded Lebanon through the this day, no one knows the contents of the letter, which Zaatari Golan Heights. “It’s a portrait of the earth that carries all these also filmed Awada making in the also exhibited video, Letter secrets,” smiles Zaatari. That is probably one of the reasons to Samir. As I stared profoundly at this encapsulated letter, behind his cofounding of the Arab Image Foundation – a non- impossibly trying to find any clues, the intrigue intensifies and profit organisation that seeks “to collect, preserve and study suddenly, ironically, like a halting sound effect, the construction photographs from the Middle East, North Africa and the Arab 157 “I do it because I believe that the war in Lebanon or the Middle East is something that can be talked about as a universal experience. I am in a privileged position because I have witnessed it and lived it and I am therefore able to communicate something about this situation that can be useful to others.” “Fifty years after the invention of the Middle East, can we look at what happened and make that useful to someone? My work hopes that someone some day will make sense of this.” photography Diaspora”. Since 1999 Zaatari has been focusing on a project communicate something about this situation that can be on Hashem El-Madani, a commercial photographer from useful to others.” In one way or another, his answer means no Sidon who founded Studio Shehrazade in 1953, who also confirmed conclusions can be drawn. He agrees. “Fifty years took photos of people at their workplaces. “He documented after the invention of the Middle East, can we look at what without knowing he was documenting.” In Itinerary, a recent happened and make that useful to someone?” he asks, “my project on El-Madani’s work, Zaatari identified the location of work hopes that someone, some day, will make sense of this.” 42 photographs of men posing near their shops in the old His work also means that someone, some day, can pick up city of Sidon. The images have been reprinted and installed in where Zaatari left off, making him a catalyst to this immortal process of documentation. “That would be great,” he smiles. the original locations in Sidon where they were shot. “It’s a permanent exhibition,” says Zaatari, “a gift for the city and its people.” The Curious Case of Zaatari It is rather basic to assume that Zaatari does what he does so we don’t forget. “I do it because I believe that the war in Lebanon or the Previous spreads: Middle East is something that can be talked about as a Left: Letter to Samir. 2007. C-print. 126 x 156 cm. Right: The Cancellation of the Front. 2007. C-prints. 91 x 112 cm. universal experience. I am in a privileged position because Above: Saida, June 6th, 1982. 2005. Composite digital image. 127 x 250 cm.Film: This Day. 2003. DVD. 90 minutes, sound. Edition of five plus one artist’s proof. I have witnessed it and lived it, and I am therefore able to 160 profile “Sometimes, these sets of ‘unknowns’ or banal details – what these fighters dreamt, ate or thought – are, for me, far more interesting.” Indisputably, it is a raw force of curiosity that propels Zaatari. We are sitting in Balima, a restaurant in Beirut’s Saifi Village. He leans over and in a hushed tone, says, “You see that old lady sitting over there?” gesturing with his eyes towards a grande dame, clad in black with strings of pearls, “I am dying to know what’s in her red purse!” He reassures me that he is not obsessively curious, but just “curious enough”. When Zaatari made the film All Is Well On The Border, he used images of letters that Awada had sent to his family while imprisoned. “I could see how his handwriting had changed from when he was 16 until 26,” says Zaatari, “and sometimes, these sets of ‘unknowns’ or banal details – what these fighters dreamt, ate or thought – are, for me, far more interesting.” What about Lebanon? “Look, your history books make you believe that this place was waiting for Lebanon to happen and that it finally did. That’s kids talk,” he says, “I don’t believe in nationalities or nation states.” What he does believe in, however, is this earth and through Earth of Endless Secrets, Zaatari tried to satisfy his curiosity. “I tried to close that chapter a little.” He has been thinking of a Beirut-based police story for a while, which will be the subject of his upcoming six-month residency in Berlin. The grande dame walks past us and he grins. “I love this place, I love the people here and I love this earth.” v For more information visit www.sfeir-semler.com 161